


A Robin's View

by SunYiJie



Category: Batman - All Media Types, Young Justice (Cartoon)
Genre: Gen, Internal Monologue
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-19
Updated: 2017-02-19
Packaged: 2018-09-25 12:44:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 874
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9821054
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SunYiJie/pseuds/SunYiJie
Summary: Basically what it says on the cover.Robin's thoughts on superhero-dom.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer.

I am not a superhero, not in the sense most people think. I don’t have powers. I don’t come from some far-off planet. I haven’t been mutated in some radioactive dump. I’m not even tall enough to ride most roller coasters. I don’t work in the light where everyone can see and cheer on the hero for the good they’re doing. It’s not happy work, what I do. I’m the side of this life that no one likes to think about. I’m one of the ones who is willing to do the dirty work of the job. I still save people, I’m still a ‘good guy,’ but I’m like a stain on the grand sheet of things. I’m a Robin who decided he didn’t like the morning. I’m on the side of the decent (noble, even!), and I do look like it when the cameras come out. At night, though, I’m just a shadow, a shadow that could reach out and grab you at any time.

It’s always him and me. I mean, it’s never just me. It used to only be him; he was the only monster under the bed or at least the only one you knew you could live through meeting. He was the monster people hoped for. But now that I’ve met the monster, he’s not so dark anymore. We still do the dirty jobs, and we’re still just one of the stains, but now it’s like we’ve been washed a few times and it’s not quite so noticeable. He smiles more, though you never see it. I know him, and I see it. His spirits have lifted (though I don’t think that was only my doing), and I think he’s even funny now( I’m pretty sure I can take credit for that one).

I’ve made friends. I mean it’s not like I’ve been cast out by the superhero society or anything. I’m not that different from them. I guess I was kind of lonely before that, though. I have friends in my ‘less secretive’ other life, but you know how that is (or I guess you don’t): you can never tell them who you really are. I mean, yeah, sure you can find people who share interests or have the same mental capacity, but it’s kind of hard to make plans with someone if you have no idea if you’ll even be alive then, let alone free to watch a movie. Every once in awhile, I get a night off – Who doesn’t? – but even then, those aren’t set in stone and they’re always interrupted. I remember this one time that I was with Barbara at a movie and my wrist computer went off. (I know, I know – you’re supposed to turn all of your electronic devices off at a movie theatre, but I think that I had a pretty good excuse there.) The Joker was probably having a grand time staging a heist at the nearest bank in Gotham, and I was stuck having to ‘ninja’ my way out of a movie (that I had paid for, by the way) because I couldn’t come up with a plausible excuse that she wouldn’t see through right away. Oh man, was she mad at me the next day. 

You could ask any other sidekick (except for Roy, probably), and they could tell each and every second of the free time they get every day. I don’t get that luxury though, oh no, because when I’m not at school or one of those stuffy social events Bruce and I always have to show up at, I’m training. It’s not just for an hour or two every day; I am not allowed to stop training until it’s either perfect or I collapse from exhaustion. This was a principle ingrained from adoption, courtesy of Alfred’s attitude about Responsibility (Add your own English flair where preferred.). Even the other sidekicks don’t really know what I do every day and just how hard I have to train to even keep up with them. They have these special things they can do, and they don’t even realize just how much of it they take for granted.

I don’t regret making the choices I made to get me here. What I do, I do not just for the people I try to protect, but for myself as well. This other life is where I can truly be me, and I get to help people and show off at the same time (that’s the important part, you know). It’s not like I don’t get hurt. This is a dangerous job, and there are always risks being taken. At least I have someone, though, who I know will at the very least avenge me if someday I make too big a mistake. From the moment I started living this double life, he’s always been there for me (catching me when I lose my zip-line or bringing me home when I’ve been hit one too many times with Ivy’s poison spores). I know he won’t always be there in the future, but he’ll try for as long as he can, and I’ll do the same for him. This life is far from perfect, but I wouldn’t have it any other way.


End file.
